I know. I’ve been reading the comments. Everyone and their dog wants to know how I’m feeling about the new job now that I’ve got day 1 under my belt. Let me tell ya, ’twas a long day. Mostly due to the “up all night, sleep 1/2 the day” rut I’d gotten myself into while on my self-imposed vacation.

As for my new co-workers and the job itself – so far so good. The job description received from the HR rep. doesn’t really seem to match what my new boss has planned for me (thank goodness) and I got to dig into mid-term course evaluations after attending meetings in the morning. Got an OJT course in during the afternoon and am slated for some additional OJT’s over the next few weeks.

The coolest thing about the new job? For the first time in a while, I’m not embarrassed to tell people where I work. There’s a lot to be said about working for an employer that has a good reputation in the area you’re living. I didn’t realize how important that was to me prior to today.

Once I get over the shock of a nearly 25% pay cut and come to terms with the fact that those cute little Prada shoes I want will likely never make it into my closet or on my feet, I think I may just have found a place where I can be happy.

Technorati Tags: work, employment

Since I start work tomorrow, tonight I get to do all the fun things I haven’t done in ages – like prepare my lunch the night before, iron a blouse, and try to get a full night’s sleep.

It’s going to be odd working in an academic environment after so many years of working for a massive international corporation. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to the experience of knowing what my co-workers look like along with knowing their names and phone numbers.

A side bonus of the new job is I’ll have a new location to randomly release books for Bookcrossing. Perhaps if I release them at a college, I may find more of them being picked up and read in the near future.

I’m not exactly sure how the dogs will react to being alone all day once again. They’ve taken to acting out a bit when I go out for a few hours, so I’m sure it’ll be a challenge for us to get them back into a routine. Thankfully the hubby will be home on Sunday and will be able to help.

Technorati Tags: books, work, bookcrossing

Well, I’ve finally gone and done it. I accepted a short term contract position with a local college this evening. As of Wednesday, I’m back in the ranks of the employed. Compared to my previous salary, It’s a pay cut but the benefits are good. We’ll find a way to make it all work out in the end.

Technorati Tags: job, employment

Susan Helen tagged me for the 8 random things meme.

She who must be obeyed tells me the rules are as follows:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So without further ado, here’s eight random things about me, some I’ve likely blogged about in the past.

1. I orginally started blogging in 2003 when I traveled to India the first time so that my friends and family could know what I was up to. The contents were more of a travel journal and can be found at Daemon-ink.net under the Travel Journals section.
2. I have two dogs and two cats (dogs: Fenris and Hypnos, cats: Thanatos and Beelzebub) and at one point we had a third cat (Manx: Grendel) who just couldn’t get along with the others once we brought the first dog into the mix. My parents adopted her and brought her home to NB approximately 6 years ago.
3. After living together for a few years, the hubby and I eloped. This was back in the day when he had to obtain permission from his military commanders to get married – something I believe is no longer required. We had planned to hold a renewal of vows ceremony for the family a few years back, but when dad was diagnosed with cancer it became far more important to spend time with him rather than spend $$ on a second wedding. The renewal didn’t happen.
4. I’m allergic to peanuts and mosquitos. Peanuts will kill me, while mosquito bites will result in really ugly welts and massive scarring.
5. When I returned from my latest trip to India and the Philippines in March of 2007, I quit my job. It’s horrific being unemployed when you’re a workaholic. That said, I’m pretty picky about where I’ll be working next, so I’ve turned down every job offer I’ve received to date. When choosing my next place to spend my energies, I need to make sure that I’m working at a company whose ethics and vision match my own.
6. I’m the only one in my immediate family that was born in Canada.
7. I’m a published poet. I really haven’t been writing much lately. A large chunk of my work was reviewed and edited by Fred Cogswell in the early to mid 90’s. Despite this awesome pedigree, I tend to get far more rejection letters than acceptance. There’s no accounting for taste.
8. As children, my sister and I spent a lot of time Highland Dancing. It seemed a large chunk of our summers were spent shuttling from competition to competition. Years later, my dad began playing with pipe bands so when we weren’t dancing we were watching dad compete. I have dad’s pipes and will be slowly learning to play them thanks to Wendy (Edm Girls Pipe Band).

Now for the fun part, I get to tag my *ahem* victims. This was actually more difficult than expected, since many of the people I’d have liked to tag already have been. I choose Laughing Muse, Joy T, Haley-O, Fence, Mark, Robin, Candace, and Carwyn.

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Feast Number One Hundred & Fourty Three

Appetizer: Tell about a time when you had to be brave.

• When I was a little sprout, I was out jumping my bike off of a home made ramp with a lot of the other kids in our neighbourhood. Of course, the bikes landed in gravel instead of on a nice safe road. I hit the brakes too early and wiped out, shredding the skin on my hand and destroying my fingernails. I went running home screaming “mommy, mommy, mommy” but stopped in the middle of my front lawn and got all quiet – which freaked the other kids out. When asked what was wrong, I remember saying “mom’s at work, she’s not home” which started off a round of my screaming “daddy, daddy, daddy” for the rest of the journey into the house. Dad put my hand in ice and then bundled my sister and I off to the emergency room of the hospital (not the one mom worked in). There, the doctors kept sticking needles in my fingers to freeze them so they could remove the dirt, rocks and fingernails, but the medications weren’t working, so they evenually decided just to rip the fingernails out directly. This of course, set dad off since he “could have done this at home hours ago”.

Soup: Which upcoming movie are you excited about seeing?

• We have a rule in our house that we can’t go see a movie we’re both interested if we’re not together. Since the hubby is away playing in the mud at CFB Wainwright, there’s a few on this list that are already out. We’re looking forward to Hot Fuzz, Spiderman III, 28 Weeks Later, The Lookout, Transformers, Resident Evil III, and Harry Potter V at the moment. Update: I can’t believe I forgot Pirates of the Caribbean III!

Salad: Name an item you try to always have on hand.

• My driver’s license – and pens. Must have lots and lots of pens handy.

Main Course: Imagine the most relaxing room you can think of. Now describe it!

• I think I’m in it right now. It’s a small bedroom that was converted to a home office/library. Books and bookcases surround me on two walls. There’s a desk beside the third wall with shelves for storing office and scrapbooking supplies above it. The desk is decked out with computer equipment. The 4th wall has a window with a small fridge underneath it to hold juice, water and pop. To the left of the window is another bookcase while to the right I have a laser printer and other computer equipment. The only thing it’s lacking is a comfy chair to read in – but finding one to fit in the room has been a bit of a challenge…

Dessert: On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest), how spiritual or religious are you?

• I have no fondness for organized religion, but I do believe there’s some sort of higher power at work. I think, possibly because of my travels, that there’s good concepts in many religions, but people tend to warp a lot of those concepts. It’s like communism, on paper and in theory it might sound like a fair system where everyone works towards a fair and just society, but the minute you bring people into the mix, the entire concept becomes a huge mess! So, religious = 0, spiritual = 8.

Condiments:

1. We’re buying you a lifetime subscription to any magazine or periodical journal you want! What’ll it be? Oh my, I have no idea. Sure, I have a current subscription to McLean’s, but I don’t know if I’d really want a lifetime one. Perhaps the Journal of Educational Technology & Society.
2. We’re buying you any existing non-chain, one-location-only store and giving you an expert lifetime manager, so that all you have to do is make decisions and watch them succeed or fail! What will be the store, and what will be your first change? I wanted to choose my local independant bookstore, but since they’ve branched out to three locations in the city, they don’t qualify. *sigh*
3. We’re buying you any house within a one-mile radius of your own! Which one do you want, and why? I’ll take the mortgage being paid off on mine thank you very much. I adore my house. While I’ve been in many of my neighbours homes, there’s nothing so striking about any of them that I’d rather live in theirs than my own home.
4. We’re hiring someone to take care of any ONE specific household chore (except cooking) for the rest of your life! Which chore will he or she attend to?Laundry – I hate doing laundry!
5. We’re providing the start-up capital for any crazy idea for a business, service, or product you can dream up, giving you total creative control while we finance your dream for five years, after which it must fail or succeed on its own merit! What will it be? I’d open my own training and performance consulting firm. I’d hire Robin and Paul to deliver training, Dori-Ann and Dana to do the performance consulting and sales pitches, and I’d design and develop the training programs based on the individual needs of each organization.

h/t to Caylynn’s Contemplations for the FF graphic. I shamelessly swiped it from her site.

Technorati Tags: Friday’s Feast, condiments